Knight Rises Gets A Stadium & A Mayor

A few weeks ago the city of Pittsburgh was announced as the site of several weeks of filming on Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises”. This surprised quite a few considering various other places were thought to be more likely shooting locales for the final installment of the Batman trilogy.

While the tax breaks and the locale itself were a draw, The Pittsburgh Examiner seems to have uncovered the major reason – a building, specifically a sports stadium.

The Civic Arena, which cinematically is best known for being the setting of the Jean Claude Van Damme action flick “Sudden Death”, is scheduled for demolition shortly to make way for new construction.

Now, much like a candy factory demolition was used to stand in for a Joker-exploded hospital in “The Dark Knight”, it appears the destruction of the Civic Arena will form part of a key sequence in “The Dark Knight Rises”.

UPDATE: Dawn Keezer, head of the Pittsburgh film office, tells CBS that “it’s a totally a bogus story… There’s been no conversation about ‘Batman’ having anything to do with the Civic Arena… so far it’s not happening. There’s been no conversation, and quite frankly I doubt if it will.”

Meanwhile, actor Nestor Carbonell (TV’s “Lost”) is in negotiations to reprise his “The Dark Knight” role as the Mayor of Gotham City reports Variety.